Pets are a child’s best friend, not their siblings

New research by the University of Cambridge and WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition finds children get more satisfaction from relationships with their pets than with their brothers and sisters.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, adds to existing evidence that household pets may influence child development, and could have a positive impact on children’s social skills and emotional wellbeing.

Researchers surveyed 12 year old children from 77 families with one or more pets of any type and more than one child at home. Children not only reported stronger relationships with their pets than their siblings, but reported lower levels of conflict with their pets as well. There was also greater satisfaction in owners of dogs than other kinds of pets.

“Anyone who has loved a childhood pet knows that we turn to them for companionship and disclosure, just like relationships between people,” says Matt Cassells, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Department of Psychiatry, who led the study. “We wanted to know how strong these relationships are with pets relative to other close family ties. Ultimately this may enable us to understand how animals contribute to healthy child development.

“Even though pets may not fully understand or respond verbally, the level of disclosure to pets was no less than to siblings. The fact that pets cannot understand or talk back may even be a benefit as it means they are completely non-judgmental.

Despite pets being almost as common as siblings in western households, there are few studies on the importance of child-pet relationships.

Continues Matt, “While previous research has often found that boys report stronger relationships with their pets than girls do, we actually found the opposite. While boys and girls were equally satisfied with their pets, girls reported more disclosure, companionship, and conflict with their pet than did boys, perhaps indicating that girls may interact with their pets in more nuanced ways.”

“Evidence continues to grow showing that pets have positive benefits on human health and community cohesion,” says Dr Nancy Gee, Human-Animal Interaction Research Manager at WALTHAM and a co-author of the study. “The social support that adolescents receive from pets may well support psychological well-being later in life but there is still more to learn about the long term impact of pets on children’s development.”